Kuwait interested in slimming wildlife crimes

Director General of the Environment Public Authority (EPA) Salah Al-Mudhi said here on Tuesday Kuwait attaches much attention to the reduction of wildlife crimes. Speaking at a workshop on the promotion of regional cooperation for fighting wildlife crimes in West Asia, co-organized by the EPA and UN Development Program office in South Asia and Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, commonly known as CITES, Al-Mudhi said Kuwait is committed to fulfilling the requirements of the CITES and to improving its implementation procedures. Kuwait is also interested in the necessary promotion of the concept of creating an executive regional network for fighting wildlife crimes in South Asia, he said. The workshop is primarily intended to provide the opportunity to participating officials and experts to look into the possibility of establishing such a network, he added. While creating such a network, it is necessary to consider the current different challenges facing the application of the CITES and to build bridges of regional cooperation with other similar networks as well as to exchange information and date among the region's countries, he stressed. The workshop is expected to discuss a suggestion making Kuwait the host country for the regional network, given that the Gulf country is the Asian representative of the CITES permanent committee and general coordinator of the CITES at the Arab League.